Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-03-26
AWAY DOWN IN FLORIDA,
WITH THE SENATORIAL PARTY FROM
CHARLESTON TO JACKSONVILLE.
The Biggest Town in Florida and Its
Northern POpulatiOn-Fish In Summer,
Sick Yankees in Winter-Oranges and
Strawberries and Hot Weather.


Sick Yankees in Winter-Oranges and
Strawberries and Hot Weather.
Especial Correspondence
JACKSONVILLE, March r.
write this letter in Jacksonville, the lead
ing commercial center of Florida. 1t Is the
entering point Of the state, and is the starting
place for the north and south. With $4,000
inhabitants in the winter and about half that
number in summer it bustles now during
the season with southern life. 1t contains
good stores, fine houses, and it looks different
from Charleston as the pictures or death
do from those Of Of life. The SEN
atorial party is at the Windsor hotel, and
the scenes about us are those OF Saratoga
rather than of a city many hundred miles
south Of New York. This hotel has Office,
carpets, billiard rooms and wide verandas, like
the great sea side hotels of the Atlantic coast
and it is crowded with wealthy northern men
and women. You hear on every side the
accent of the Yankee, and the support of
Jacksonville is well indicated by the answer
which little negro boy gave to my question
as to what they did here to make living.
He said: "In de summer, sab, we lives off
de fishes, and in de winter we lives off de sick
Yankees"
The sick Yankees Of Florida are numbered
by the tens of thousands, and there are other
tens Of thousands of well Yankees who come
south to get the glorious climate which
this state has in the winter. Today
is like Ohio in June Winter undercIoth-
ing is unpleasantly warm. l write by an
open window. and Senator Sherman and
Gen. McCook have just returned from rae
which they took without their overcoats. In
front of me there is a large park filed with
orange groves, and the yellow fruit shows
out from the bushy tops of bright green
leaves 1 noticed many roses blooming in the
gardens as [ drove about the city, and we
picked wild flowers yesterday evening at
Savannah, miles north of here. The stores
here have their straw hats conspicuously dis
PLAYED and the negro children are barefoot
The peas are in bloom and we had delicious
Strawberries for breakfast This city is lined
with shade trees and they are all in green
leaf, and the plants grow most luxuriantly in
the gardens. The houses are large and some
of them are northern in their styles OF archl-
lecture. saw one cottage which looked as
though it might have been built for one Of
the suburban towns Of New York city, AMI
the style of the stores is distinctively northern
They have good storerooms, and all kinds OF
stores carry large stocks of goods. The
groceries are especially good, and the jewel:y
stores show that they live of northern money.
***
Jacksonville is fall of big hotels and board
ing houses. 1t is plainly a watering place,
and its accommodations show that it
pays to cater to the tastes of the wealthy.
Many of the hotels are run by northerners,
and the Windsor, which is one of the best ii
Florida is managed 10y a Nermonter. Tin
city has street cars. 1t is lighted with gaS.
and its water comes from an artesian We J.
We drove out to this and found the well mao
a beautiful fountain, sending up heavs
spray which fell like an. umbrella of diamond
into a great basin and was carried fro
thence to the city in pipes. The water is liz
crystal, and it has, when it first spurts UP
ward, strong sulphur odor. 1t tastes O.
sulphur too, but this sulphur smell and taste
pass off. l am told, after the water has stool
for a short time, leaving it as sweet as that OF
the purest mountain spring.
~
The land Of north Florida, at least that
through which we have so far Travelled, j.
not inviting to northern eyes We miss Il
green sod, and the sandy, scrubby growt
which takes its place is no comparison to the
blue grass of the north. An acre Of velvety
lawn is more beautiful to my eyes than az
the flowers, orange groves and pines OF these
tropical lands, and the country about here,
with all its luxuriance, has not the still life
beauty Of the rich blue grass regions OF the
north. The lands surrounding this city arr
laid out in streets and lots for a great
distance. Trees have been planted, and on
paper doubt not the property looks very at
tractive 1t is not so to the eye. Rage
grass somewhat like our northern swaEiP
grass grows upon it. Parts Of it need drain
age, and the color Of the grass now, when il
should be as green as the emerald, Is of hay
colored brown. The trees, which are scattere3
sparsely over it, are of the short leaf pine,
tall and lean, with no branches till they burst
forth in umbrella shaped foliage at the top.
They give little shade, and one could not be
comfortable sitting on the half sandy, il
covered with verdure soil beneath them. Their
were few gardens in the country about Jact
sonville through which we drove, and l So
but few garden patches about the smale.
houses of the city. The town has been ma
by northern tourists and 10y its commerce
location making it the chief shipping an.
stoyover place of the state. 1t has greal
hopes for the future, however, and has grown
from about 1,700 to as many thousands il.
twenty years. &*&
Just here want to say few words about
Charleston. l was surprised at its many ee
CANT old mansions, and at some fine new ones.
There are n Dre large houses in it than any OF
the other cities of 10000 in the United States.
On East Bay street, facing the harbor, are
houses after houses bigger than that Of Jane
G. Blaines at Washington, and on Meetin.
street tL2re are houses big enough to enter
tain monarch and his retinue. All Of thes
houses, as l told you in my last letter.
have wide porches running one above tn
other along one side Windows and door
open out on to these, and they are from eight
to twelve feet wide. These porches or gal
lerieS are never in front of the houses and
they are in the better class of houses uphe)t
10y round wooden or stone pillars. They usI
ally loCk out upon gardens, and the Charles
ton house has its lawn and garden at one
side Of it. next the galleries, and never in IT,
front or on both sides. The houses are Close
TO the street, and their one end forms the line
between their owners property and theii
neighbor's There are many houses in Charles
ton which could not be reproduced for
$50 600. and one new one, Senator Palmer
estimated. must have cost at least 100000
MANY of these fine houses were almost ruined
by the earthquake, but the scaifoidlngs sur
round these and they are being repaired
Back of many of these big old mansions still
stand the negro quarters, and the large num-
Der of negroes on the streets show the exist
ence of this great element of the south's popu-
lation They are more picturesque than the